Genocide statue for Preston's Ray Bramham Gardens is dividing the community

Aisha Dow

A monument planned for a Melbourne park to honour the victims of genocide has angered a host of ethnic groups and even prompted the Turkish Consulate General to demand the project be scrapped.

The statue was to be erected in Preston's Ray Bramham Gardens in November last year in recognition of everyone affected by genocide, but the project has been delayed by ongoing controversy.

Members of the Sri Lankan and Turkish community have objected to the use of the word genocide, while there were calls for the suffering of Aboriginal people to be specifically noted in the monument's descriptive panel.

Darebin Council has since approved new wording that recognises "the Crime of Genocide inflicted historically upon Aboriginal people of this country", but not without another drama.

There were calls for deputy mayor Oliver Walsh to resign after the Liberal councillor questioned if it was the council's role to decide whether the injustices inflicted upon the Aboriginal people could be considered genocide.

Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency chief executive Muriel Bamblett said Cr Walsh should make a formal apology to the Darebin Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Council or stand down.

Advertisement

Cr Walsh has since said he was "sorry" and he regretted his remarks. "In no way would I ever try to whitewash history and whitewash wrongs that have happened to the Aboriginal population," he said.

The monument was first proposed by the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council in 2013 and is being funded by the community group, which receives $25,000 from Darebin council each year.

The plan first hit troubled waters after objections were received from the Turkish Consulate General, Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance and members of the Sri Lankan community over concerns the monument could cause division in the community, despite the fact that no specific genocides were being highlighted.

The Turkish Consulate General formally objected to the word "genocide" in the monument's title and raised concerns about its proximity to the Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre and the "potential for conflict between members of the community during such events in the future".

It is understood the issue could have been inflamed by some members of Darebin Ethnic Communities Council having family ties with the Tamils in Sri Lanka or Greece - it's believed hundreds of thousands of Christian Ottoman Greeks living in Turkey were killed in forced deportations and massacres by the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.

"There has been some sensitivity around the possible misunderstanding of the monument's objectives and its possible misuse by individual communities," a council report said.

Cr Tim Laurence said he called for the wording of the monument to be changed so it also recognised people who, despite having been part of a majority group, had also been victims of crimes against humanity because of their ethnicity or race.

He said he also supported highlighting the genocide inflicted upon the Aboriginal people, saying that the "Black War" in Tasmania, which all but wiped out the state's Indigenous population, and the Stolen Generation, would fit within the definition of genocide.

The United Nation's definition includes "forcibly transferring children of the group to another group".

The victims of genocide memorial has been approved by the council, but the issue is expected to continue to be so sensitive that the council will develop "a protocols for use" to manage ceremonies and events around the monument.